Saturday, May 06, 2006

Disclaimer

There seems to be general consensus in the blogosphere that whenever ethical questions arise, the best answer is disclosure. So I'm posting this clearly lest there be any confusion about my role in Coleen Rowley's campaign for Congress and my publication of this site.

I began this site in October 2005 as a Rowley supporter and sometime volunteer. My reasons for starting the site and for helping Rowley's campaign were the same: I think Coleen offers Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District better representation than John Kline does. And I have learned through hard experience that if you want your politicians to change, you can't just sit back and hope for the best; you need to make it happen.

Over the past few months my involvement in the campaign has grown, and last Friday, as I was writing the previous post, I was offered the opportunity to join the campaign in an official capacity, as a member of the campaign staff.

After giving this some consideration, I have chosen to join the campaign on a part-time basis (I currently work full time and I am obliged to honor my current contract for another couple of months). My first act as a member of Coleen Rowley's campaign staff occurred this morning as I led a group of volunteers in a demonstration of support for Coleen, and later in the day I attended the DFL's endorsing convention as a member of the campaign staff.

Anyone who's read this far realizes that there have been problems in the past two election cycles --- and even in this one --- with political bloggers who have undisclosed partisan affiliations. In every case I'm aware of, the consensus of the blogosphere has been that there is no inherent problem with campaign staff maintaining a blog as long as all relevant information about the nature of the blog and the campaign's relation to it is fully disclosed.

Hence this little disclaimer.

So, for the record, I signed on to Coleen Rowley's campaign on May 6, 2006. None of my official acts pertain to publication of this blog. It is still the case that the ideas and opinions expressed on this site are exclusively my own. I do not take direction from the campaign about the content of this site, nor is publication of this site overseen by or coordinated with the campaign. In particular, I do not receive any monetary compensation from the campaign for maintaining this site.